


Language of Colours

by mocha_sun



Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half-Life VR but the AI is Self-Aware - Fandom
Genre: Black Mesa Sweet Voice, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Frustration, He/Themrey, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, Tommy teaches Gordon sweet voice! Pog!, wtf gay little roommates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:07:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28395123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mocha_sun/pseuds/mocha_sun
Summary: Gordon starts to learn to read sweet voice from Tommy, with the express intent to non-verbally show his emotions to Benrey in his own language.He denies that's the reason, of course, but what do you expect from Dr. Gordon Denial VR Freeman?
Relationships: Background Boomer and Sodashipping, Benrey & Tommy Coolatta, Benrey/Gordon Freeman, Tommy Coolatta & Gordon Freeman
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	Language of Colours

**Author's Note:**

> I'M STILL WORKING ON MY FIRST FIC YES DONT WORRY  
> I decided to work on a different piece for a little bit because I couldn't concentrate on Time Heals Wounds, so I went through my ideas and chose the one that seemed shortest and like it would need the least amount of plot planning.  
> It's a whole problem of mine that I write and write and as Soon as I finish writing I hate it and it seems bad. So I am going to blatantly ignore those feelings and upload shit without getting anything beta-read. :)  
> I'm planning on this being /around/ 14 chapters, and that actually seems like a lot, but with the whole theme of colours, it's because I'm doing chapters by colour, with a few additions/variations.  
> Enjoy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A start of.. something?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No content warnings as of right now, but if there should be, please comment! :)

Dr. Gordon Freeman was not a busy man, however much he tried to be. Sometimes life just goes in such a way that you get a lucrative job with your Ph.D., work for three years, live through a week and a half of extraordinarily catastrophic fallout because of a failed test, make some not-quite-human friends along the way, barely make it out, struggle through a year of healing from PTSD (made more difficult by  _ certain _ factors), and slowly push your life back as on track as possible with the immense changes to your way of life because of those couple of weeks. Well, what can you do.

That being said, life isn’t really considerate, per se, and despite Gordon’s hardest efforts, his attempts at trying idle hobbies were constantly foiled by the unfortunate nature of ADHD. 

Until, around five months after Benrey, his former teammate turned rival turned enemy turned nightmare demon turned ????? turned roommate, moved in, Gordon realized. 

Why not learn to read Benrey’s sweet voice? 

He brought the idea up to Tommy and Tommy only. They both agreed that it might be a better time commitment than the other things Gordon’s tried since he’d need to keep a schedule and constantly learn new things and keep a consistent amount of effort poured in. Tommy promised to keep him on track. 

And so, that’s how Dr. Gordon Freeman woke up on a Tuesday morning at 11:43, lifting his head off of his desk to see papers strewn all over his office, jars of paint, brushes, pencils, and paint water situated in every single most precarious position imaginable. 

“Oh, shit.”

* * *

A full hour later, Gordon made his way downstairs, balancing ten jars of various liquids in his arms, hyper-aware of every single thing around him that could endanger the assortment of jars he clutched. Luckily, he managed to make it down to the kitchen without any mishaps, and he set all of the jars in the sink with a mess of glassy clinks. The clatter drew a startled pitch from the adjacent living room, and as Gordon turned his attention in that direction, a small cloud of yellow-orange bubbles of sparkling light floated up from the couch, accompanied by a yawning figure sitting up, an indigo hat hanging lopsidedly off of a disheveled head of pitch-black hair. Gordon smiled. 

“Hey, sorry! Good m- uh, not-morning, ha.” 

Benrey rubbed his eyes with one hand, setting his Switch down with the other. “Hey man, whatcha doing? Did ya just wake up? Gordo Sleepman? Napman?” He righted his hat, tugging the tassels. Gordon huffed a laugh at Benrey’s inquiries and turned to the fridge. “Woke up an hour ago, that’s what I get for staying up till four. You eat yet?” He glanced back in time to see Benrey get up and shake his head. “Nah. Macky cheese?” Wordlessly, Gordon turned back and started to pull out the necessary items to make mac and cheese. 

* * *

After lunch, the pair cleaned the dishes, and Gordon gathered the jars once again to make his way back up to his office, stashing some on a shelf and filling the others with tap water. He snatched up one of the multiple stacks of note-papers on his desk and thumbed through it, splitting the pile at a paper labeled with yellow pens. He muttered to himself, skimming the page until he came across what he needed. 

“Alright. Pure yellow is uncomfortableness, and orange is… ambiguous. He was probably either annoyed or surprised by the jars… I guess that makes sense.” He sighed and shrugged, tapping the bundle of papers against his desk and set it down. Staring up at the ceiling in thought, Gordon spun around in his chair a couple of times for good measure. “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ugh. I’ll just go see what Benrey’s doing, I can’t think right now.” With that decided, he stood, pocketed his phone, and padded back downstairs to plop down beside Benrey, who was now playing Stardew Valley on their shared PS4. That caused Benrey to pause and look at Gordon, cocking their head questioningly. Gordon just blinked and leaned over to rest his weight against their shoulder. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon like that, Gordon either idly scrolling through social media or watching Benrey play Stardew Valley, occasionally offering minor commentary, exchanging short jokes. Once dinnertime rolled around, Gordon flopped back away from Benrey and opened his contacts on his phone, and ordered Chinese takeout. Another bit of time passed, the food delivery arrived, they took a break to eat dinner, then went back to the couch, Benrey now lying on top of Gordon, who was spread out along the whole couch. They both stayed that way for some hours, until Gordon poked a half-asleep Benrey, telling them to get up so Gordon could go to bed. Benrey obliged, and Gordon dragged himself up and off the couch, patted them on the head, and went upstairs to sleepily work his way through his nighttime routine.

As Gordon lay in bed, the only thoughts drifting through his mind were hidden, unexplored emotions wrapped tightly in domestic contentment.

* * *

That night, Gordon had a dream of a kind he hadn’t had in a while. Luckily, not a nightmare, but rather a dream that, while it was one single situation his subconscious stirred up, felt incredibly abstract, almost kaleidoscopic in nature, like something someone would see in a modern exhibit in a fine arts museum. 

He and Benrey sat on a park bench, facing a shady, vibrant park, backs to a small river. It was warm, but definitely autumn. Gordon couldn’t see anyone else, but he knew Joshua, Tommy, and Sunkist were somewhere near, running around playing hide and seek among the trees. 

Gordon looked at Benrey. Their face, while still slightly shadowed (a side-effect of being an eldritch being of unknown origins, if Gordon had to guess), was alight with relaxed joy, so different from their usual neutral expression. Their eyes glowed, literally, irises a swirling mix of cotton candy pinks and blues. Gordon looks around.

The kaleidoscopic colours seem more intense around him and Benrey, and every mosiacal piece wavers between two or three colours, glimmering no matter where the sunlight hits. The trees in the park sway with leaves of 

green-cyan and green-mauve, 

orange-green and orange-purple and orange-cyan and orange-black,

yellow-green and gold-pink; and the grass shifts between dark green to blue.

The sidewalk at their feet is mottled with grey and black bricks, all with specks of pink mixed in like sand.

The sky isn’t quite as fractured as the rest of the scenery, but its hues mixed with cyans, mauves, and pinks in the imitation of a sunset, and fluffy white clouds drifted through it, mauve shadows on their undersides from the sky. 

The river flowed along, shards of teal-cyan and teal-green and teal-cyan-pink sharpen and melt with the ripples caused by the current.

Looking down, Gordon saw the bench itself is a mosaic, more literally than anything else around him, geometrical shapes supporting him and Benrey in shades of 

purple-green,

mauve-orange and mauve-green,

magenta-teal and pink-magenta.

Gordon smiled. It’s slightly dizzying, but it’s beautiful. He opened his mouth to say something of the sort to his companion, but no words come out.

Only soft, glowing, pink and blue lights, like the ones in Benrey’s eyes, drifted out, a near-silent melody accompanying them, deafening in the stillness of the dream. 

Gordon’s eyes closed, and he sank into a deeper, dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next morning, blinking his eyes open in the morning sunlight, Gordon wondered about the nature of the dream, considering the splashes of colours that had surrounded him and their connection to colour becoming a more important factor in his day-to-day life. Too sleepy to get out of bed, Gordon instead felt around for his phone and noted down the one combination of colours he remembered.

_ Pink to blue - ask Tommy today? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can and will project my ADHD hell onto Gordon smh

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is greatly appreciated, considering that I don't trust myself to critique myself because I'd just overthink.
> 
> I'm sun-needs-sleep on tumblr and mocha.sun on Instagram! I always forget to check Instagram, though, so if you want to message me, send me something on tumblr, k? :)


End file.
